In recent years, the use of Internet-connected devices such as smartphones has grown exponentially. The number and variety of available software applications for such devices has similarly grown by orders of magnitude. Presently, many diverse functions can be performed, and many diverse sets of data can be analyzed on any given Internet-connected device. The applications that offer this functionality and data span business-oriented applications, educational applications, games, new applications, shopping applications, messaging applications, media streaming applications, social media applications, etc.
Advertising faces new challenges for mobile devices. The amount of screen real estate is significantly smaller, meaning that fewer and more relevant ads need to be selectively shown. Further, ads that simply point to a web page may not create a seamless user experience as ads with deep links that go directly to a particular state of an app. However, there is no single standard for deep links and no magic answer for relevance. As a result, there is a need in the industry for improving search results that can be used for advertising purposes. The search results can be obtained by performing a search based on a perceived intent of a user to increase relevance. Therefore, there is a need for improved relevancy for mobile ads, both in websites visited from a mobile device and native apps running on a mobile device.
Digital marketing and advertising helps drive today's economy. One reason that advertisers find more value in digital advertising over traditional forms of advertising, such as print and television advertising, is that digital advertising allows advertisers to better target potential consumers. For instance, if the advertiser knows a particular user likes an obscure sport such as disc golf, the advertiser may provide disc golf related advertisements to the user. This user would typically not be presented with such advertisements, unless the advertiser was aware of the user's preferences. As users become more reliant on native applications, the ability to advertise and link to deep states of applications helps advertisers as well as users.
The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.